IoT for Oil and Gas. Interview with Melissa Zerber

Mark: Hey, folks let’s learn something new about the oil and gas industry.

All right. Today, we have a special guest. We have Melissa.

How are you doing today, Melissa?

Melissa: Good. How are you?

Mark: Very good. And, Melissa, who do you work for?

Melissa: Energy Conference Network.

Mark: Energy Conference Network and y’all have an event coming up, called what?

Melissa: The IoT in Oil and Gas.

Mark: And, what is IoT?

Melissa: IoT is the Internet of Things.

Mark: Yeah. So, folks did you hear that? How often have you heard those words together, oil and gas and internet of things? So, this is new although this is the second year you’ve done this.

Melissa: It definitely is our second yea and we’ve gotten so much overwhelming interest and support. We’ve doubled the size of the event already, so.

Mark: Yeah. So, think about that, even in this low crude price environment, other people other oil and gas companies realized the importance of learning about internet of things, right?

Melissa: Absolutely.

Mark: Yeah. And so, in this low crude price environment, what’s one of the things that – that type of technology, so IoT type of technology, what can that help operators do?

Melissa: Well, definitely the main goal is to reduce your operating cost while maximizing efficiency and basically improving the bottom line. So, if you’re really kind of think about our daily lives just as – as average consumers, IoT is driving our entire world everyday as far as getting information faster, quicker, and easier.

So, when you put in perspective of the oil and gas industry, you’re able to look at your assets quicker, reduce unplanned downtime which as we know can – downtown can be millions of dollars a day. So, if we can catch the problem ahead of time, you know, improve predictive maintenance and even including machine learning, it’s really going to help improve that bottom line.

Mark: Yeah. And, you have some major players in this event?

Melissa: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Mark: Yeah. So, not just major operators from oil and gas, but major technology companies?

Melissa: Oh, absolutely. We have partnered with Microsoft as our major event partner. [NBN], they’re doing some great things. IBM, OSIsoft. We’ve got some great companies with great solutions and the experience that are going to – to be at our event.

Mark: Yeah. And so, the nice thing is if you wanted to learn this on your own, you’d jump on a place have to travel all the over the place at our event, IoT event, everybody is going to be in the same place at the same time, so you can meet and talk to everybody.

So, when is the event?

Melissa: September 14th and 15th at the Whitehall Hotel in Houston.

Mark: Yeah. And, folks we’ll put a link in the show notes. You don’t have a lot of time, sign up. I’ll be there, Melissa will be there, all your oil and gas peers will be there. This is something you really need to pay attention to and you really need to get a head up because the oil and gas industry is changing. This is the event that’s going to show you how it’s changing.